DCFS has jobs -- but no DCFS workers need apply

The state’s child welfare agency wants to fill 187 direct-service jobs across Illinois as soon as possible – but is asking its own workers not to apply.

Dana Heupel

The state’s child welfare agency wants to fill 187 direct-service jobs across Illinois as soon as possible – but is asking its own workers not to apply.

Over the past year, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has posted 181 direct-service vacancies, according to a memo sent this week to direct-service workers, but only 23 were filled by applicants from outside the agency. The rest were taken by DCFS workers who wanted to change jobs.

“Basically, all we have been doing is moving our vacancies around,” the memo from acting DCFS director Erwin McEwen states, “and at the same time, the high stress levels of staff remain the same. We are no further ahead with meeting our direct-service needs today than we were a year ago.”

Direct-service employees include caseworkers, investigators and those who follow up on the agency’s actions.

“This has been an ongoing challenge to the department,” Marlowe said.

Filling the vacancies as quickly as possible, McEwen’s memo said, “is critical in order for all of us to have a sufficient number of staff working to meet the demands of our abuse and neglect investigations, as well as our services to intact families and children in placement.”

In the memo, McEwen acknowledges that direct-service workers have a right under their union contract to bid on other direct-service positions. However, he asks them to “exercise restraint” to allow “the hiring process to proceed expeditiously to the phase that will bring in new people to fill these current vacancies.”

A spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents the direct-service workers, agreed that the agency is short-staffed but called McEwen’s memo “misleading.”

The delays are not caused by the union contract, said Anders Lindall of AFSCME, the largest state employee union. They result from a policy that requires permission from the governor’s office and its budget department before state agencies can fill vacancies, he said.

“It’s caused it to be extremely slow, if not impractical,” Lindall said.

“We respectfully disagree,” Marlowe responded. “We have received the full support of the governor’s office in filling the critical positions. We have encountered no barriers whatsoever.”

“Long delays filling vacancies is never a good thing,” said Benjamin Wolf, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which filed a federal lawsuit that led to major reforms in the state’s child welfare system in the 1990s. He said, however, he does not believe DCFS is violating the consent decree that specified the reforms.

“I don’t know that this is the right strategy, but something needs to be done,” Wolf said. He said he’s not certain what is causing the hiring delays.

“The process seems to be taking even longer than usual with this administration, but I don’t know why,” Wolf said.